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Health Care Workers Encouraged to Wash Hands Often

Frequent hand washing is vital to halting the spread of germs and infections, especially in a health care setting. 

“Anyone associated with a patient—whether the person is a health care professional, hospital employee, or hospital guest—should take time to wash their hands to help fight the spread of germs and infections,” said Mark A. Piasio, MD, MBA, past president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. 

A recent news story reports that hospital staffers wash adequately about half the time—a number that dives as low as 20 percent when facilities start tracking hand hygiene rates, according to Maryanne McGuckin, DrScED, a former University of Pennsylvania public health researcher. She has spent her career trying to boost hand hygiene in health care settings. 

Health care workers can help reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections—which kill nearly 100,000 people in the US each year—by practicing proper hand hygiene.

“We’re now making the association that people are dying of MRSA because people aren’t washing their hands,” McGuckin said. 

National guidelines say health care workers should use alcohol-based hand rubs or soap and warm water for at least 15 seconds before and after every direct contact with a patient, excretions, or contaminated surfaces or objects. 

In addition, Pennsylvania has taken several steps to prevent hospital-acquired infections, including a new law that requires hospitals, nursing homes, and ambulatory surgical facilities to develop infection control plans.